Michel Phelps has created history and has become the player with maximum number of gold medals in Olympics after winning his 10th gold in swimming at Beijing Olympics. Now he holds the world record for getting 8 individual gold and a total of 14 of his career at .He is 23yrs of age and hails from Baltimore, USA.He has broken Mark Spitz’s record of 7 gold set in 1972.
Abhinav Bindra a 23 year old, young man from India has bagged the Gold Medal in 10m Air Rifle at the Beijing Olympics. He defeated Zhu Qinan of China who was .5 points away from him, Finland’s Henri Hakkinen finished at the third spot. This is the first gold medal of India in any individual event. Abhinav had participated in Olympics twice before and this was his third consecutive year. His earlier attempts had also been commendable especially when he did not have enough resources to get a very good training. Bindra has been awarded the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award(2001) ,the highest award in the field of sports in India.At a press conference Abhinav told the journalists that he had been practicing since 10 years and had constructed a shooting range in his house. The hard work and enthusiasm of this young lad is exemplary and I am sure it will encourage many others to step forward and take active part in sports.
The memorable day of 8th August, 2008 marked the opening of Beijing Olympics. The number 8 is considered lucky by Chinese, so the event was held on this date. The whole world witnessed the mesmerizing show of lights and music at the national stadium in Beijing. China has spent an exorbitant $43 billion in setting up the whole event. The whole city has been transformed architecturally to accommodate the players and spectators from all around the world. 37 venues will be used to host the events including 12 newly constructed ones. Total 205 nations are participating this year.
10,500 athletes are competing in 302 events in 28 sports. Following sports are on the list ( number in the bracket represents the number of events that will be held for a particular sport)
• Aquatics
• Archery (4)
• Athletics (47)
• Badminton (5)
• Baseball (1)
• Basketball (2)
• Boxing (11)
• Canoeing (16)
• Cycling (18)
• Equestrian (6)
• Fencing (10)
• Field hockey (2)
• Football (2)
• Gymnastics (18)
• Handball (2)
• Judo (14)
• Modern pentathlon (2)
• Rowing (14)
• Sailing (11)
• Shooting (15)
• Softball (1)
• Table tennis (4)
• Taekwondo (8)
• Tennis (4)
• Triathlon (2)
• Volleyball (4)
• Weightlifting (15)
• Wrestling (18)
